troubles with fink

[Cat]

For all those experimenting with Fink, I strongly advise to use FinkCommander. It really helps a lot in keeping track of what is installed/available etc.

[tachyon]

fink list says (among other things)

i xfree86-base 4.2.1.1-3

I typed "fink install system-xfree86" but after a few lines it craps out and says "dpkg: error processing /sw/fink/dists/stable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/system-xfree86_4.2-13_darwin-powerpc.deb (--install):
conflicting packages - not installing system-xfree86
Errors were encountered while processing:
/sw/fink/dists/stable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/system-xfree86_4.2-13_darwin-powerpc.deb
### execution of dpkg failed, exit code 1
Failed: can't install package system-xfree86-4.2-13"

Somebody feel free to tell me what I did wrong, and by the way, X11 for 10.2 has been pulled off Apple's website so says

http://developer.apple.com/qa/qa2001/qa1232.html

We can do this, people. Tell me what to type.

P.S. I just went to SourceForge and got FinkCommander, so I'll check it out.

[Cat]

i xfree86-base 4.2.1.1-3 tells you that this packages is ionstalled, this is part of Fink's X11 environment. the package system-xfree86 is a virtual package that tells Fink you have installed another X11 on your own, not by Fink. These two obviously conflict. Either you install all of Fink's X11 or another + system-xfree86.
Try "fink install xfree86". This should install a complete X11 environment with all dependencies and required packages etc.

[tachyon]

Progress!

OK, I see what happened. When I first installed fink, I told it I had another X11 environment. But I didn't have it yet. So I just got the virtual placeholder.

But I located a copy of the Apple X11 beta for 10.2, and installed that, and now I can launch basilisk. Hurray! Thanks for your help everyone.

I also installed nmap as I read that was useful on another forum. That seemed to install and run OK.

Now all I need is suggestions for everyone's favorite X11 software.

Cat, I am going to repeat this exercise on another 10.2.x machine, do you suggest the Fink X11 instead of Apple's one?

[Cat]

Apple's X11 has always worked fine for me.
I hope everything will be easier now. Fell free to keep asking questions!

Try looking in this thread for suggestion on X11 apps to use. Remember that you do not necessarily need to use Fink apps inside X11. E.g. nmap runs fine in your OS X terminal, but it's text only, while in X11 you get a nice window. TeTeX is just an engine, you can point any Cocoa application (like TeXShop) to it.

Poke around in FinkCommander, use the info button and look if you can find something you like, there are a lot of nice utilities, applets, games etc. not to mention programming languages/environments etc. Have fun!

[tachyon]

Thanks Cat and Viro, your help got it all sorted out in my head, fink's error messages gradually made more and more sense and now.... drum roll please... I am proud to annouce I am typing this from Mozilla running within XWindows and I also have downloaded the KDE bundle!
Fink kept complaining about Apple's X11 so I had to disable it and install XFree86 from Sourceforge.